Hurricane Katrina Families: Social Class and the Family in Trauma Recovery.

Hurricane Katrina has profoundly altered the lives of New Orleans residents as they continue for years following the storm to attempt to rebuild their community and their lives. Natural disaster literature has historically focused on the impacts on individuals and correlating variables. Significant literature gaps exist regarding family systems and disaster and analysis of the relationship of social class to recovery. Further, social class has traditionally been examined solely as it relates to socioeconomic status. This qualitative investigation situated in an emancipatory paradigm investigated the relationship between social class and family changes for seven families recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Participants self-identified as members of marginalized social classes. Cross-case themes emerging as significant in the process of familial recovery included Relationship to Community, Interpersonal Relationships, Constructions of Class, and Growing and Changing. Study conclusions revealed significant shifts in family identities evolving around participant geographic connectivity to kinship networks, perceptions of social class status, and levels of cohesion between individual and relational domains within a family. Implications for professionals in the fields of disaster preparedness and recovery are outlined, with emphasis on the connection between practice and study findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]